Chapter 1.

I stood there, looking at the door to my apartment. It was night time, not sure what time it was, I’m not even sure how I got there. Honestly I don’t remember anything that’s happened to me or what I was doing before standing here. But I knew it was my apartment, something inside of me was telling me it was. I lived in apartment 219 on the 2nd floor of my apartment complex. There were 3 doors to my left, that were the entrances to the neighboring apartments and 2 doors on my right. I looked back at my apartment door. It was painted in a old gray color that looks like it needed to be redone, the current paint job was chipping and flaking like bark off a tree. Three fourths of the way up on the door had the apartment number, 219. Although for some reason the numbers were blurry and I couldn’t see exactly what the numbers were, but I knew it was my apartment, it had to be.....right? I mean who else’s apartment would it be? it had my small green plant on the on the right side slightly off the edge of my welcome mat that DID NOT say “welcome”. Something was off though, for some reason, my plant was only green. It’s not supposed to be a “Green” plant, more like a small cactus that was in the shape of a ball. It was about 3 inches round. Usually it’s a brown and yellow color with red spots peppered in, but what seemed off about it was that it WAS green. It seemed weird but didn’t bother me as much as you would think. Something was telling me that this was normal. I told myself “o-well” and shrugged, I reached for the doorknob to enter my apartment. I turned and the door creaked open, it was dark inside I couldn’t make anything out, it was an eerie darkness but I proceeded to enter.

I entered my dark apartment and let the door go behind me. It slammed shut like if it was being slammed by a teenager who just go sent to their room after getting onto an argument with their parents. I turned to look at the door and suddenly I was able to see, I wasn’t sure what was going on. One second it was complete darkness and the next there was light. You would think that something like this would throw up some red flags but there were none going off, I preceded like it was normal, but in my head nothing seemed right as my body was just going through the motions. I turned back to look at my 1 bedroom apartment, my living room and kitchen pretty much joined. I seen my couch and TV to my left and my small table for two on my right. All the lights were on even in my bedroom and restroom. Again, something didn’t seem right I couldn’t make out the details of anything. Papers and bills that were on my refrigerator held up by magnets. The bills said “Due” and “Passed Due.” I knew that’s what they said but couldn’t make out any letters or words, everything was well.....blurry, like watching a horrible pirated movie that wasn’t in focus. I thought to myself “why can’t I read any....”. A sudden thump scared me and cut off my train of thought, it was coming from my bedroom. The light from my room casted a shadow onto the floor of of the hallway that was directly across from my bathroom. The shadow was of a man, but even the shadow was blurry. “Can a shadow be blurry?” I thought to myself. Then there was a second thump that sounded like a sledge hammer hitting a concrete slab. The shadow didn’t move, then another thump. I started to walk towards my bedroom being as cautious as I could be, I mean I WAS walking towards and unknown shadow of what looked like a blurry man that potentially had a sledge hammer. As I got closer the thumping was getting louder and faster, THUMP....THUMP..THUMP.THUMP. The thumping was turning into a deafening pounding that sounded like I was 10ft from a helicopter that was about the lift of the ground. As I reached the corner to turn to look into my room the sound suddenly stopped and there was a high pitched ringing like the sound thats heard in movies when someone throws a flash bang grenade into a building. I looked at where the shadow and feet met, slowing moving my gaze up the person standing there. he was wearing black shoes, dark blue jeans and a black jacket that seemed like it was some sort of Jean material. As my gaze moved up we locked eyes, he’s was smiling at me and said “Hello there Mark”.

The weird thing about it was, I wasn’t able to make out his face, at all. Everything was blurry and I didn’t know why. I couldn’t even see him smiling but I KNEW he was. Something in the back of my head was telling me he was smiling at me, taunting me, daring me to make some sort of move to attack or run but my body wouldn’t move. I said “uh....hi, do I know you?” He looked to his left and then to right in disgust as if he was judging the cleanliness of my room. He then said “Not yet you don’t Mark, but I think you will get to know me soon.....very soon.” That sent a chill down my spine as if I walked into a haunted house at night by myself, the chill started at the base of my neck then spider webbed down my back into my shoulders and down to the my forearms. From the base of my neck the chills when up and around my head as it felt my head was being grasped by the hand of the angel of death himself. I immediately knew this was bad and I needed to get out of here. He took a step towards me and it was immediately followed by the same thump I heard earlier. I looked to my left and seen the front door. I started to make a run towards it, I ran with everything I had as my adrenaline was pumping through my veins. everything seemed to slow as the fight or flight response kicked in, just like any adrenaline dump into someone’s system. Thanks the time slow effect of being high on adrenaline, it seemed like I wasn’t getting any closer to the front door. That’s when I realized, I haven’t moved at all. “What’s happening” I thought to myself “I could have sworn I was running full clip toward my front door.” The guy was about 2 feet away from me and laughing “You think your going to get away that easy Mark! C’mon you know, there’s no escaping death.” I didn’t want to die, if flight wasn’t an option then the only other choice I have is fight! I charged at him and tackled him to the floor, I was mounted on top of him and started punching with everything I have, like a Professional MMA fighter that grappled their opponent to the ground a continued with a flurry of ground and pound tactics. I swung my fists ferociously with a blaze of punches. Every punch felt like it had the power of a bomb behind it and it felt good to get this out. It felt like the fear and anger that was deep in my soul was swelling and bubbling like a lava pit that about to explode. The power felt as if it was surging up and pouring into my arms and down to my fists. After what seemed like a lifetime of swinging the flame that was fueling my anger was burning out and I was started to feel the strain in my back, shoulders and arms from the punches. As I looked down on the man expecting to see a bloody mess of flesh and teeth. He laid there laughing at me like nothing happened to him at all, not one scratch on his face, not one drop of blood, not one smudge on his face from my fist. I was shocked, fear swelled up inside me, “how could this be possible, I hit him with everything I had. My punches had the manifestation of fear and anger fueling them. There’s no way this is possible.” I cocked my right arm back ready to throw a haymaker punch that would for sure put him out. I swung with everything I had behind it, as my fist reached his face I was expecting some serious damage but, to my surprise my fist just brushed off him like a feather hitting a rock. I didn’t understand what was happening I started thrashing and swinging wildly at him each punch had absolutely zero effect on him. It was like damage of my punches was sapped away the moment before impact. Each hit that brushed off of him sent a tingle up my arm as if my funny bone was hit again and again and again.

He continued laughing the whole time I was hitting him, or trying to hit him at least. When I finally stopped my last ditch effort of swings, he starred into my eyes. His gazed pierced through my soul like a cherry hot nail pushing through a piece of ice. I froze in his gaze as he pulled a 1 foot serrated knife out of what seemed like a different dimension, his hand phased into tear in space. I couldn’t believe what was happening, if I wasn’t about to die I would have been giving more thought into how he got that knife. It seemed like my time finally ran out. This was it, my life was over, I was about to be stabbed and killed. “Would anyone even know if I died, would anyone even care “ I thought to myself as I was staring at the knife. He put both hands around the handle of the knife, pulled the knife over his head. My arms and shoulder went limp to my sides as I gave up on struggling and just accepted my fate. I was still mounted on top of him and staring at the knife raised above his head getting ready to be plunged into me. “Goodbye mark” he said, then thrusted the knife towards me. As the blade touched my sternum I felt an intense burning sensation that felt like fire and a radiating heat. The pain was unbearable and felt like my insides were being torn, I could feel the cold steel coming into contact with my organs. Everything started to fade, the pain was still there but everything started going black almost as if someone was dimming the lights ever so slowly. As darkness creeped up from the edge of my vision and started to consume what little light I could see. I thought “well this is it, I thought I’d have more time.” Then the darkness flooded me like I was getting hitting with a massive wave at the beach, only this wave wasn’t water, it was just a dark wave of regret, anger and jealously that I felt through out my life. The wave hit me so hard it felt like I got slammed onto the floor by a professional wrestler. The pain shot through my whole body, I could feel every inch of my body in pain as the impact spread across my body. As the pain surged up my body it forced me to open my eyes.

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Suddenly the pain stopped, I could see light. My vision was still a bit blurry but, it was slowly coming into focus. I heard a beeping in the background that was separated by a 2 second moment of silence. I brought my hand to my chest where the knife hit me, expecting there to be a massive cut but, there was nothing there. My hand was shaking as I trembled in fear, thinking about what happened. I looked down at my legs and realized I was laying in a bed with a white sheet covering me all the way up to a little bit above my navel. “Oh it was a dream.” I thought to myself “what a dam crazy dream that was. Makes sense now, why my punches weren’t doing anything and I wasn’t able to make anything out. Well I guess it’s back to reality now for me.” I was in a hospital bed, sick as a dog and might be on my death bed “That dream should have killed me.” I thought to myself hoping my death was as fast as the knife to the chest was. “At least I wouldn’t be in this much pain anymore” It’s the year 2032, there’s a major virus outbreak currently, we don’t know what the hell the virus really is, no one really does. All we know is that the the life expectancy from the time of the first symptom is 14 days, or 2 weeks, and guess what lucky person has it? That’s right..........me. I’m going on my 15th day from the 1st day of symptoms. It sucks, my fever is nonstop all day, constant nose bleeds and extreme thirst and hunger. I can’t eat anything, anyone whos infected just throws it up. My brain feels like it’s being fried from this fever, my head is pounding with a constant headache and I keep feeling a thumping in my head which would explain the thumping in my dream. Please just let this be over already I just want to die.

My chest started hurting again, the beeping on the machine next to my bed started to increase the rate of the beeping. It felt like a house was on top of my heart, with every breath I took my lugs felt like they were being torn apart. I clenched my chest and tried to yell for help but no sound came out of my mouth. I tried to lift myself out of the bed but my legs gave out on me and I fell to the floor. My chest was pounding, the intense pain and heat radiating from my body coming into contact with the cold linoleum floor of the hospital. It felt as if I was in a steaming jacuzzi for a long while then jumped into a cold pool. My vision was fading as I heard footsteps entering the room. I was able to see 3 set of shoes before my vision faded, all were white with light blue scrub pants. The pain went away but I was still conscious. I heard talking, but wasn’t able to understand what was being said. I felt no pain, no heat, no coldness, no anything. I was waiting to just fade away. After what seemed like an hour I wondered what the hell was going on, “why haven’t I gone to the great beyond” I said to myself. I forced my eyes open, they were closed cause I figured I was dying and didn’t need to open them. I seen nothing but white that went on forever and ever. One thing stood out though, there was a table and a chair about 10 feet from me. Just one chair? “I guess that one is for me” I said to myself as I made my way to the seat.

I took a seat and looked around as if I was looking for something to be posted on the walls, but of course there was nothing, just emptiness and more emptiness. I waited a while, a long while. I examined the table with its wood finish that was rough to the touch like a wooden pallet that was used for shipping. I thought to myself “Whoever is in charge here needs to get some better tables, someone’s gonna get a splinter here.” As I laughed at my own corny joke. I smirked to myself and then continued being bored. I laid on the floor, laid on the table, laid under the table in what seemed like and eternity of waiting. Then a thought came me, “I must be in hell, of course I am” I thought to myself. “But what did I do to get here” I didn’t do much in life to be considered “bad” I was a 32 year old, single male, no kids, no wife. I don’t even have a girlfriend. I lived by myself in a 1 bedroom apartment. I worked as a telemarketer selling websites to prospective businesses. Of course my job seemed like a scam but it was hard days of work for little money. I barely made enough to pay for my apartment and I lived off ramen. When I’m not working I play video games, specifically MMORPG or Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, but I sucked at them. I wasn’t really good or skilled at anything, I always spread my stat points to far apart in different skills and never really got very strong. I didn’t specialize in anything, I was what you would call a noob I guess. “Man this is a bummer, how do I get out of here?” I thought to myself as I leaned back in my chair.

“Hello Mark” said a voice that seemed to be coming from all directions. It scared the crap out of me. I fell out of my chair that I was leaning back on as I scrambled back to my feet, I was trying to play it off like nothing happened. “Uh....hello.....who’s there” I said in a curious voice. “It is I, AVA. I am the processor that moves you humans from one program to the next. AVA stands for All Knowing Virtual Assistant but you may call me AVA”

“.....AVA huh? Wouldn’t your initials be A.K.V.A? I mean All Knowing IS two words” I said. “Oh, I believe you may be correct All knowing Mark.”

“Uhh my name is just Mark, not All knowing” I said.

“Hmmmmmm” Ava said mockingly, “Then let’s just leave this topic alone, NOT ALL KNOWING MARK.”

“Whatever” I thought to myself, as I gestured with one hand in the air to continue. “So uh....AVA....where am I, and where are you?” Suddenly a blinding white light appeared across the desk from where I was sitting. The light was so intense that I was able to see the light through my closed eyes. The light started to die down after a couple seconds and I was able to open my eyes half expecting to have some residual retinal burn from the light. You know, those spots you get when you look at something bright for a while and every time you blink you see the picture off it? Ya, that type of retinal burn. From the sound of the voice I was expecting to see a relatively young woman. The voice sounded like she was in her late 20’s........I think. But to my surprise there was no woman there, there wasn’t even a man there, it was......well....just a ball, yup a ball of swirling light. The ball was about 1 foot in diameter and looks like it was filled with some sort of red, yellow and green liquid. Almost as if there was a whirlpool inside of it. “Here I am” AVA said as if she just performed a magic trick and expected me to clap or something. “And as for you Mark.....” she let the rest of the sentence drag on for dramatic effect. “You......are........DEAD!”